Boosted Boards
;e Boosted Board promises to be the very first radio-controlled anything that you’re
supposed to stand on. It’s an advanced, no-nonsense, electric skateboard that – you
guessed – comes with its very own remote control setup. ;e transmitter is almost as
interesting as the board itself and is worn like a ring by the board operator. ;e board can
be ridden like any other skateboard, but kick in the motor and you can e;ortlessly cruise
at 20mph for about six miles. Regenerative braking helps put a bit of power back into the
sleek Li-Ion pack hidden behind the front wheels, while the motor pod is tucked away
just in front of the rear axle.
Boosted Boards won’t start shipping until sometime in Summer 2013, and they are
expected to sell for around $1,200 each. Not the cheapest longboard in the entire world,
but probably the most likely to turn heads. Who would have thought that combining
skateboarding with RC cars would result in eco-friendly personal transportation?
( boostedboards.com)
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;e Air Hogs Zero Gravity
cars are so small that the
transmitter doubles as a
docking base!
A complex servo and gyro setup allows for impressive control of the round ball.
Radio-Controlled Ball
What else can I say about this one? It’s a ball,
Using a clever set of pendulum weights and a
driveshaft set along the axis of the sphere itself, you
could very easily drive the ball around, turning tight
corners, going forward and reverse, and even navigating
very slight inclines. Anything steeper than about a degree
or two sent the ball tumbling out of control, and it also
wasn’t much good o;-road. It did, however, excel in water
(my particular model was waterproof), and in fact, it was
my “rescue boat” for a couple years at the model boating
pond. It wasn’t the fastest thing in the world, but it was
completely amphibious and pretty frugal on batteries.
3
WiFi Monster Truck
A friend of mine wrote me about this one, and after his initial description, I
wasn’t all that impressed. It’s a basic toy-grade monster truck, and it drives
around ... big deal. “Oh, and it’s controlled through the Internet using a wireless
router,” my friend wrote, almost as an afterthought. Hold the phone.
After clicking through to the full write-up ( jbprojects.net/projects/wifirobot), I
was amazed to learn
how Jon Bennett
hacked reality by
bolting a Linksys
wireless router to
the aforementioned
bargain basement
truck and building a
software interface
to control it from a
laptop. ;e truck can
be driven up to 500
meters away without
line of sight (thanks to
a live video feed) for
close to 30 minutes.
As an added bonus,
Jon provides all the
details on his website
for building your own
WiFi monster truck.
1
Perfect for secret
neighborhood
reconnaissance.
